Published by Frederick Muller in 1953 this endearing book captures the true story of a sparrow fallen from its nest, its rescue from her doorstep by a widowed ARP warden and her care for the tiny bird throughout its life. The book enjoyed considerable success; reprinted four times in 1953, three times in 1954 and had reached its eighteenth impression by October 1968.

The book bundles together the story of the relationship between the two, the cataclysm of their experience of the Blitz and as the post war period begins and the sparrow grows older and is living to an age beyond what could be expected for a sparrow in the wild, a Tory of scientific interest begins to emerge.

It is this that prompts Julian Huxley in his foreword to remark on the value of a study in such detail of one bird’s lifetime. One of the most interesting accounts is the development by this particular sparrow of song,

“Wild house-sparrows have nothing that can be called a song, merely a series of chirps and calls. Thus it is really quite extraordinary that this bird should, quite spontaneously and without deliberate teaching, have stared to sing.” (Julian Huxley).

It is hardly surprising that for his rescuer, caught in the midst of the Blitz and her life underpinned by faith, should find in the event an allegory to live by. Kipps has a photographer take a series of photographs and in one the sparrow is looking carefully at the pages of a book.

“After the photograph had been developed I found that the words to which his little beak were pointing were these: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father? – a statement that embodies, perhaps, the most astounding revelation of the value of the Creator of the individual personality of the creature in the pages of the Holy Writ.”

More about the sparrow next time….

Published by Penguin in 1957, ‘The Mask of Glass’ was one of a dozen crime novels published by Holly Roth (1916-1964, presumed lost at sea) who also produced work under the pseudonyms of P.J Merrill and K.G. Ballard. Roth began her career as a model, a job for which the back of the book tells us ‘she was well suited.’ She spent a period as a journalist before turning to novels and shorter fiction.

‘The Mask of Glass’ is not long, this Penguin edition is only 154 pages but it is a fast paced spy thriller, absolutely packed with action as we follow the career of Jimmy Kennemore, a young Army intelligence officer disfigured and forced to change his identity after an explosion in which he is presumed to have died.

What makes this book so interesting is that it belongs so completely to the decade in which it was written. As the story unfolds we could be nowhere else but in 1950s America, in the height of anti Communist paranoia. The anxiety and fear of those years runs through every page.

1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Over the next few posts more excerpts from Holbrook Jackson’s ‘Bookman’s Holiday’. First of all, Charlotte Bronte on ‘Pride and Prejudice.’

And a mid-Victorian view of Charlotte Bronte’s home from William Cory.

For people who love to read and care for books in their physical forms, books about books are of endless fascination. Not just that but the lives of authors, the process and techniques of creativity and the impact of reading and the people that books build are of continual interest and plenty of books testify to that.

Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948) was a writer and publisher whose output included numerous titles on the world of books and reading including The Anatomy of Bibliomania (1930), Maxima of Books and Reading (1934) and the Pleasures of Reading (1948). Bookman’s Holiday (above) was first published in 1945 and captures the extent of his reading and knowledge.

I was pleased to find in here a quotation which I’d often heard…

And Shakespeare, of course…

This short crime novel, first published by the Woolfs at the Hogarth Press in 1929, has as its protagonist the anxious, overthinking, uncertain young stockbroker Malcolm Warren. C.H.B Kitchin (1895-1967) was a barrister, sometime greyhound breeder and chess and bridge player who enjoyed considerable success as a fiction writer.

Part of the charm of this tightly structured crime novel – my 1949 edition is only 167 pages – is the personality of Malcolm Warren. Summoned unexpectedly down to visit his aunt for the weekend to advise her on her investments, his first interview with her ends with her sudden death caused by a tonic he has administered. As he moves from observer to suspect a tight web of movement within the household is gradually unpicked.

Malcolm’s sense of his own inadequacies informs his detection style…

Endless lists notes and internal questioning finally brings the case to a successful conclusion. Malcolm Warren was to appear in three more crime novels – Crime at Christmas (1934), Death of his Uncle (1939), The Cornish Fox (1949).

The four crime titles were only a small part of Kitchin’s overall literary output. He wrote a number of well-regarded novels including Streamers Waving and The Auction Sale.

Death of my Aunt is well worth a read…